A guide to reducing data roaming costs when travelling
Have you been burnt by high data bills when travelling? You’re not alone.
Things we take for granted with the popularity of smartphones and 4G are the same things that drive your data bills through the roof whenever you leave the UK.
As your Summer Holidays approach, we’ve compiled a list of ways to eliminate data roaming charges and data usage while travelling abroad.
Monitor how much data you use
Market-leading data management software helps your business manage your mobile data usage and reduce any escalating bills.
Our mobile data optimisation solution reduces the volume of data transferred between mobile devices, applies compression, capping and blocking services for UK or international data roaming and prioritises essential apps to continue working through your capped data whilst providing real-time dashboards with state-of-the-art reporting features.
Turn off data roaming
The European Commission recently voted to end roaming charges by 2014, but until this comes into action it’s important to turn off data roaming on your phone when travelling outside your network.
Data roaming charges occur when you use your mobile data on a network that doesn’t belong to your provider, without connecting to Wi-Fi first. Instead of using your data, set your settings to Airplane Mode which still allows Wi-Fi in public hotspots.
Disable push notifications and auto-synching
Does your phone instantly let you know when you have a new email? Or that one of your apps has been updated? Or even what’s happening on your favourite social media? These are push notifications and they require data usage.
Disabling push notifications are relatively simple and will be outlined in your user guide for each operating system.
Purchase an international data package through your provider
Your communications provider will offer an international data package to protect you from receiving any inflated bills when you return.
These packages are sometimes called “add-ons”, where your provider will let you buy a bundle of data for a monthly rate.
Use Wi-Fi alternatives
The easiest way to save data is to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot. This will allow you to use WhatsApp, Vibr or similar to send messages, pictures, audio notes and video messages via Wi-Fi, saving you the cost of making phone calls.
